Changes

Although Mission: Space would not open until 2004, plans for a space pavilion in Epcot actually date back to the late 1970sEPCOT Center's early designs. In fact, in the 1977 Walt Disney Company Annual Report, the space pavilion is one of the many planned EPCOT Center pavilions mentioned. The report describes the space pavilion as:{{Quotation| “A huge, interstellar "Space Vehicle" will transport passengers to the outer frontiers of the universe, highlighting man's efforts to reach out for the stars around him ... from the early pioneers who looked and wondered ... to modern-day space travelers and their triumphs ... to the challenges and possibilities of future space technologies and exploration”| Walt Disney Company 1977 Report<ref name= "Hill"> http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2011/10/07/why-for-did-epcot-s-future-world-not-turn-out-as-wed-had-originally-planned.aspx </ref>}} The initial space pavilion was themed to look like a space station, and would have begun with guests taking an omnimover ride through space, and into orbit. From here, guests could have explored a variety of interactive exhibits, including the pavilion’s main attraction- which would have allowed guests to travel through space in a motion simulator theater, looking . Looking out through walls of windows, through which they could see both the depths of guests would have been able to look out into space, and even be able to look down on earthsee a stunning view of the planet Earth. During the development of the pavilion, Imagineers consulted with famed art director John DeCuir Jr., as well as science fiction author Ray Bradbury<ref name= "Hill"/> who helped create the attraction's storyline. Although fairly well developed, plans for the space pavilion were pushed back to EPCOT Center’s “phase II” due to budget constrictions. When another phase II pavilion [[The Living Seas]] opened in 1986, it was built on the plot of land originally designated for the space pavilion. Following the addition of Seas pavilion, the theoretical space pavilion was relocated to a new space in between [[The Land]] and Living Seas.